Kirby Can Be Saved

Recently, Trees for Houston has been battling with the Upper Kirby TIRZ over widening Kirby drive.

The argument tends to go something like this:

TIRZ: “The lanes are too narrow, there’s all this development happening over here, and we’ve got to improve traffic flow.”

TFH: “The trees are about the only thing making Kirby bearable for pedestrians, all this development is of the dense, urban, pedestrian attracting nature, and it wouldn’t take much effort to save them.”

You can read a better recap of the story here and here.

Now, the argument has mostly been lost by those who would like a more complete city, in favor of those who care about nothing but their car going as fast as it can. So, at this point there’s probably little chance of them doing anything better, but I thought it was worth revisiting this topic to discuss what should be happening on Kirby.

I strongly agree with the Trees for Houston folks, the trees can and should be saved. However, I think that the solution comes from thinking bigger than Kirby Drive, and that part of the dialogue has been sorely lacking.

The problem with Kirby Drive is that it is the only North/South connector through what has become a very dense, mixed-use area. Unsurprisingly, it’s a bit of a monster. The street is packed all the time. However, the bottleneck zone is pretty small, just the most intensely developed area along Upper Kirby, roughly from Westheimer down to Bissonnet. So, while the road is busy all day, it never really stops moving.

The problem with this particular stretch of road is that you have tons of users from the nearby neighborhoods who need to get to and from their shopping, dining etc who have no choice but to use Kirby, and they clash with the many office workers who come in from 59, and also motorists from that neck of the woods who would like to use Kirby -> Allen Parkway as an alternate route into Downtown.

If you could remove just one small portion of these trips, you’d significantly improve the flow of the road. So how do you do that?

The answer is the network. Kirby is only so packed because it is the ONLY through street. But, incredibly, there are three parallel streets that almost make the connection.

Rather than spending all that money to tear up and rebuild Kirby, causing an absolute traffic nightmare that will undoubtedly put many of the smaller local shops that make that strip so unique under extreme stress, if not out of business all together, the City and the TIRZ should be investing in completing the network of local streets to support Kirby first.

With those local streets in place, and some signal timing synchronization on the cross streets (Richmond, Alabama, Westheimer), Kirby could become a truly dynamic urban center. And seeing as the light rail is going to be arriving in Upper Kirby shortly, this is the right time for such local area infrastructure improvements to occur.

Take a look at this map to see how this would work:

The red area represents the congestion 'crunch zone' on Kirby. The blue highlighted streets are the locals that need to be connected in order to alleviate traffic on Kirby. The dashed areas are the gaps in those streets.

If Lake St, Argonne St, and Revere St were improved and connected, it would be a huge economic development boon to the area. These streets could be simple, one lane each direction with on-street parking. To help facilitate the type of dense, urban infill development Upper Kirby is experiencing, these streets could be configured with wide sidewalks and curb extensions (or ‘bulb outs’) like we see in some parts of Midtown. These have the benefit of traffic calming, while also helping to make clear the areas where parking is allowed and where it is not. They also would provide further pedestrian connections, helping to link some of the major residential which is located just off the major thoroughfares to the commercial development fronting on them.

Improving these streets would not require much in the way of property takings. Lets looks at the places where it would…

This area can be connected without any demolitions. Some takings would be requried to fit the streets through areas that are currently parking lots. The red highlights indicate the new Kirby support streets, the dashed lines indicate east-west connectors (present or future).

To the immediate north of US 59 each of these streets could be connected through parking areas or vacant lots. This would provide ‘back entries’ into the office cluster that is located at Kirby and 59, as well as giving neighborhood drivers a ‘back way’ to get to the 59 feeder without using Kirby. This is the magic of networks, you’ve alleviated traffic without widening the monster.

This area is a little trickier...

The area around Kirby and Richmond isn’t quite as simple. Here you would need one significant property taking, and a few smaller takings, to make this all work. Two houses and a small rental unit would have to be demolished, in addition to the shopping center in the corner. Fortunately, this is exactly the right location for a massive redevelopment, one that could be coordinated as a joint venture between the City of Houston, METRO, and a developer. The Upper Kirby Light Rail Station will be arriving in the neighborhood at approximately this spot, so having effective land use/transportation coordination here is essential, not to mention some neighborhood parking for the station.

The redeveloped corner could look a bit like this. Mixed-use buildings in red, major parking garage in gray.

A redeveloped corner could accomodate the new through streets, and could look something like the image above. This type of develoment fits the character of the area and compliments the transformation that is ongoing, especially closer to Westheimer.

Finally, we get to the west side near the new West Ave. development.

In this area Lake Street could be connected through to the side of the new West Ave. development

Here we have an opportunity to signficantly improve access to one of the most exciting new developments in Houston: West Avenue. This is a precedent-setting project which, along with the Post Midtown Square project, will be a hallmark example of how to design the pedestrian realm in Houston.

All of these connections can be made fairly painlessly. These side streets could provide abundant on-street parking, much needed in this intensely redeveloping area.

Finally, after the side streets are done, Kirby drive could be rebuilt to a new, walkable standard. Instead of widening the existing lanes, Kirby could be reconfigured to have two continuous through lanes with a large median (as it does north and south of the bottleneck), and possibly some on-street parking within its current width.

Then you’d truly have a world-class urban commercial corridor, just in time for the new transit investments that are coming this direction.

Then maybe it could look a bit more like this:

An example of an urban, pedestrian friendly thoroughfare. From the ITE CSS Manual. Click to enlarge.

Now, why nobody in Houston cares to think outside the right-of-way when dealing with transportation problems, I don’t know. But these are the kinds of solutions we’re going to need more and more of if the city is going to continue to be reborn in an urban fashion. The old, fragmented street system in many places inside the loop, and ESPECIALLY in the Galleria area, will have to be connected and reconnected if we’re going to be able to support any kind of density, and if we want our transit dollars to be well spent.

It’s probably too late for Kirby Drive, but it’s not too late for a good discussion. Please leave your comments!